3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Hi, how are you doing? That would be a standard greeting in a modern day letter or perhaps an email. It does not necessarily require an answer since it is merely a nicety. There were standard greetings in ancient times and this is one of them. The difference with this one is that it is jam packed with gospel truth. Grace is undeserved favor granted to us by God. Peace is only attainable by the hope and joy of salvation through the selfless love of Jesus Christ who gave us himself as our Passover Lamb. Just as that first Passover delivered the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, Jesus delivered us from slavery to sin. God the Son did the will of God the Father and received the glory of our worship.
Then Paul wrote the letter! There does not seem to be much to add, but there is. Apparently, there was another gospel going around that taught that there was something we needed to do along with Christ’s sacrifice in order to be saved. In later chapters, Paul pointed out how insulting that is to the cross. In this chapter, he was more blunt, that they should be cursed.
Do you feel grace and peace today? There may come times when we feel we need to do extra to pay for our sins. You cannot add to the cross. You may feel that peace is unobtainable in this chaotic world. It is available and what’s better…
It is free.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church